Center for Academic Writing (CAW)
Since its launch in 2011, our Center has been offering support in science communication in English to academics as well as the wider general public. Writing development has been neglected in Czech education. Students are taught orthography and grammar but they are not systematically encouraged to develop reader awareness, write analytically, and develop flexibility to adjust to the different conventions of the different audiences they write for. These deficiencies then naturally manifest themselves when students write in English, a language that has become the main means of communication for many researchers. Our centre strives to provide services that help our students learn strategies to manage writing with more ease and to produce texts that readers understand.
Our services:
Courses
Our courses guide participants through the process of writing or developing a presentation. We teach strategies that will make the writing process easier and lead students to reader awareness, proficiency, and independence. Students work on their projects gradually under our guidance and receive in-depth feedback that will help them to better anticipate and understand the reader's expectations.
Most of our courses are offered online or in blended form, i.e. we alternate between face-to-face sessions and independent work in the LMS Moodle platform. Course overview here.
One-on-one consultations
The Center provides individual consulations to anyone at any stage of writing. The consultations serve as an opportunity for the students to test how their text can be understood and to receive individual guidance on structure and content. We welcome early drafts that are ready to be shaped into more coherent texts. You can also come before you start writing to develop a plan and writing strategy. More about our consultations here.
Workshops
Our workshops serve researchers, universities and doctoral and master students who need to communicate in English. The workshops are practically oriented, so participants will experience and try out many strategies. We cover various topics in research writing, but we can also tailor-make a workshop according to specific requirements. More about our workshops here.
Our aims:
- to show that writing can be continuously improved and that writing is a cultivation of thinking
- to lead clients to understand genres and to develop reader awareness
- to teach science writing in a meaningful way, using innovative teaching methods
- to lead clients to independence and greater confidence when writing or presenting in English as an additional language
- to act as a source of useful information on science communication in English